April 20

TLSP: Everything You've Come to Expect

By Oriana Kubinska

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The Last Shadow Puppets have just released their sophomore album and there’s enough to suggest that the project of two finishing-each-others-sentences friends is not exactly what we have come to expect. It's much, much better.

Alex Turner and Miles Kane recorded Everything You’ve Come To Expect last summer in Malibu with [Simian Mobile Disco’s] James Ford. It took place at the musical heaven, once owned by Bob Dylan himself, the Shangri-La studio.

The duo co-wrote the album across three cities - London, Paris and Los Angeles - with the subtle focus remaining on California. The wavy tunes and playful string arrangements point to the fact that both artists now reside in L.A.And They’re back, baby. They’re so, so back. (Sorry for calling you “baby,” we just got swept up in the seventies’ swing of it all.)Whilst these songs clearly have vintage charm of the seventies, TLSP are not entirely relying on their debut nostalgia. Instead, they’ve made an album that feels more moody and experimental than The Age of Understatement.

Their first single, Bad Habits might even sound like a hell of a hangover, but you can easily picture Alex and Miles in a casual get toghether party when this simplistic tune cames along. Brash and hectic. They start singing it, laughing, and the spark of that moment creates the beginning of a hella good album. For us, that’s the fact.

Aviation kicks it off in a similar fashion. The great opener to the album proves that Kane and Turner have not lost their gift for witty lyrics. The riff of the song was born on the New Year's Day 2014, while baloons halfway through deflation process still loitered around the room. Dramatic and theatrical sound of Aviation goes well with the retro music video: stylish and sexy. As Turner and Kane are.(OK. Minus Miles planting this >> kiss << on the big boss man).Kane is the less famous but more contentious half of The Last Shadow Puppets. He seems to have a special language that he shares only with Turner, and it’s difficult to tell whether he’s making fun of you or trying to let you in on the joke.

But this album is worthier than the duo’s in-joking suggests.At times they are thrillingly inventive. On Sweet Dreams, TN Alex sings like we've never heard him before: lighthearted, carefree, even silly at times. Turner says that the change in tone is intentional. The simplistic nature makes it hard to tell when one track ends and another begins, but the overall atmosphere is fantastic. Here’s the taste:

I just sort of always feel sick without you baby

I ain’t got anything to lick without you baby

It’s like everyone’s a dick without you baby

Ain’t I fallen in love?

Miracle Aligner is the definition of relaxation in a form of a song. The tune perfectly syncs up with the groovy vibrations that echoes through it all.

Track is tailored for the festival season:

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The Last Shadow Puppets isn’t quite what we’ve come to expect. Like those weird twins who always talk at the same time. Yet blooming bromance aside, Duo's principal interest was always in music:

'That rock’n’roll, eh? That rock’n’roll, it just won’t go away.

It seems like it's faded away sometimes, but it will never die.

And there’s nothing you can do about it.'

Alex and Miles might have just created the way for the next generation of rock.